The primary objective of this work is the elucidation of biochemical mechanisms operative in the formation of deoxysugars. This in turn will permit insight into some of the regulatory principles governing deoxyhexose biosynthesis. Extension of these studies to other sugar transformations revealed that a number of different enzymes in terms of substrate conformation, stereochemical specificity and mechanism of hydrogen transfer were noted. An attempt is made to recognize some of the general principles of enzyme catalysis common to these enzymes as well as the elucidation of regulatory principles applicable to a number of different enzymes. To establish a correlation between immunological properties of cells and source of the regulatory principles of carbohydrate biosynthesis evolving from these studies will be the final aim of our studies.